Abstract
This study was conducted to evaluate the probiotic potential of lactobacillus species in terms of hydrophobicity, autoaggregation and co-aggregation which provide preliminary criteria for selecting strains with high adhesion ability. The lactobacillus species were isolated from various regions of gastrointestinal tract of chickens. Among the 220 samples 100 were identified as lactobacillus species upon preliminary screening which were further confirmed by using gene specific primer amplification and sequencing. Twenty one (21) out of 100 were confirmed as Lactobacillus species, upon sequencing 16 of them were identified as L. paracasei (6), L. jhonsonii (3), L. salivarius (3), L. fermentum (1), L, agilis (1), L. sakei (1) and L. curvatus (1).The adhesion attributes of these strains were assessed through hydrophobicity with chloroform and xylene which ranges between 23.7 – 75.7% and 71.1 – 88.8%, respectively. Among 16 strains, 8 showed > 80% hydrophobicity with xylene. A significant (p < 0.05) and comparatively higher values (> 90%) for autoaggregation were observed for lactobacillus (n = 7) strains after 24 h, rendered a great potential of probiotic bacteria. A significant (p < 0.05) higher values of percent co-aggregation were found 52.3% (ZA64Cl) and 33.6% (ZA62Cl) with S. aureus and S. typhimurium, respectively. A non-significant (p > 0.05) but higher value of percent co-aggregation 39.3% (ZA68Cl) was noted with E. coli. These strains also showed antagonistic effect with enteropathogenic bacteria which prevent the intestinal epithelium by forming a barrier.
